About 15 volunteers wearing powder blue jerseys helped distribute 528 backpacks, along with various other school supplies, to community members in need Sunday afternoon at Columbus Lock and Dam.
The backs of those jerseys had various nicknames like “O.G.” or “Founder and CEO.” The jersey fronts all bore the name “Takes A Village,” and every volunteer aided in the mission of the team’s leader.
“I try to be for the youth what I wish I had growing up,” Takes a Village founder Rickey Harris Jr. told The Dispatch.
Takes A Village’s fifth annual Back2School Drive was its most ambitious yet, with this year’s event including a family fun day complete with games, bounce houses and free pizza. A brief rain shower less than an hour after the noon start did little to spoil the fun but instead cooled off the sweltering July afternoon.
“This is beautiful,” said Wanda Jones of Columbus, who picked up a backpack Sunday for a child. “This is very important because you have parents who can’t afford school supplies for their kids. … Things like this bring people together, and it’s something the kids can enjoy.”
Harris, a 17-year Air Force veteran stationed in Amarillo, Texas, had long wanted to give back to his native Columbus. His motivation came in November 2017 when his nephew, 16-year-old Antaves Harris Petty, tragically died in a car accident. Petty was a standout wide receiver with the New Hope football team, who made good grades and was looking forward to a bright future, Harris said.
“I felt like I could do it as a tribute to him and keep his name alive,” Harris said.
Once Harris had his “why,” it took a few more years to develop the “how.” For that, he looked to his own childhood.
“I didn’t have a backpack growing up,” he said. “… I want the backpack to symbolize that education is important. The better education you have, the farther you can go. … As long as you get an education, nobody can take that from you, and there’s no cap on what you can accomplish.”
Harris used his own money to start distributing backpacks annually in 2021 under the Takes A Village moniker, a direct tribute to his nephew, who went by “Tav.”
The first two years, the group set up at Sim Scott Park with 100 backpacks, then moved to the old Kmart parking lot with 300 backpacks each of the last two years. No matter how many backpacks Harris came with, they were all gone “super fast.”
“It was really just me buying a bunch of backpacks and supplies and just passing them out,” Harris said. “I thought, ‘there’s got to be a smarter way to do this.’”
Harris registered Takes a Village as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2024 and began taking tax-deductible donations for the cause. He’s also gotten volunteer support from Sharp Mind Entertainment, a local digital media company that helped host Sunday’s event.
“Everything starts at home, but everybody needs a little help,” Harris said. “If we can … get a backpack for them, that’s one less thing Mom’s got to worry about.”
Katrina Porter, Tav’s mother and integral part of Takes A Village since its founding, counts the growing annual event as a “huge success.”
“It means a lot to me to see the parents bring their kids out to get the supplies,” she said. “Even if you’re fortunate enough to give, you can still bring your kids out and support the cause.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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